Of course, if I'd known that ahead of time, things might've gone differently. Instead, we had two sets of mental abilities overlapping and amplifying each other to crazy levels. A harmonics thing, I think. Maybe her gestalt thing, too. The whole being greater than the sum of the parts or something.

I ended up planting a very big idea. Much bigger than I'd planned. And she brought us together.

Of course, being in this body took a lot of adjusting. There were all those mornings Christian woke up and couldn't figure out why her face didn't look right. Plus all the old things she couldn't remember, and the new things she could. Most people would start panicking about Alzheimer's or something, but she was so focused on rallying the After Death movement and her steamroller-style mayoral campaign that she just kept brushing it aside. And she kept saying the phrase I'd given her again and again, like an error-loop glitch that keeps popping up.

People can depend on me when things get tough.

She started forgetting her life and started remembering mine.

St. George appeared in the sky and dragged me back to the present. He spun around in a circle like a kite whipping through the air. Then he dropped down and landed on the pavement a few yards away.

"What's up, Christian?" he said. He always sounded so sincere. It's incredible how fast that can get grating.

"I need to show you something," I told him.

He glanced back across the Mount. "I'm kind of busy," he said. "We're trying to juggle a couple of things before-"

"It'll just take a moment," I said. "You can spare a minute, can't you?"

"Yeah, of course."

I turned away and fumbled with the lock. It was a show. I'd done it three times already at this point. "I'm glad you made that announcement," I told him without looking back. "I'm sure a lot of other people are, too. It will make the vote go much smoother, don't you think?"

"Yeah," he said.

The lock popped open and I pulled the handle. I glanced back at St. George. "Are you coming?"

He reached over and held the door open, then followed me in. One thing I've got to say, men treat women differently. It's a bunch of little stuff, but it's there. It threw me at first, but I've gotten adjusted to it.

St. George walked behind me toward the center of the stage. I'd set up some blankets, just to make things a bit homey. People are always a bit confused when things look homey, and confusion usually works in my favor. Three of the blankets already had people stretched out on them.

"Danielle?" he called out. "What are you doing here? I was trying to reach you for half an hour."

My favorite redhead didn't move, of course. She'd been the second one I'd grabbed. I couldn't risk her recognizing some speech pattern or habit of mine. It was tempting to use her once or thrice for old time's sake, too, but I don't have that equipment anymore. Still getting used to that part of this, I've got to admit.

"Sorry about that," I told St. George. "She was helping me with something. You don't mind, do you?"

He was going to say no, of course, but by then he'd noticed Danielle wasn't moving. And he'd seen Freedom's bulk spread out on the farthest blanket. And, just past Danielle, a third person. In the dim light of the stage, she blended in and was hard to spot.

To give him credit, he didn't shout her name or anything melodramatic like that. He just charged across the room. Leaped, really. A n.o.ble man of action.

I took my time and walked up behind him. He had the cloaked b.i.t.c.h in his arms. He tried to wake her up, pressed his fingers against her throat, and listened to her breathing. I was maybe five feet behind him when he glanced back. "Did you know about this?"

I nodded and smiled. "Do you want to lie down next to her?"

He set her back down on the blanket, placed a fold of it under her head, and returned my nod. "Yeah," he said. "I think I'd like that."

His brow wrinkled, and I saw a spark of fear deep in his eye. He recognized what was happening. What he was doing. It's always more fun when people realize what's going on.

"Just stretch out and relax," I said. "Wouldn't that be a good way to spend the afternoon?"

St. George looked down at one of the open blankets, flipped the edge over to double it up, and sat down on it.

It's a little risky, doing this. Getting them alone one by one and then dropping them. One quick response, one of them puts it together before I can speak, and this fun little experiment is over.

But it's still better than the alternative. I'd heard stories about what happened to me out at Project Krypton. Well, to other-me, I guess. I pushed for details where I could, eavesdropped when I couldn't. I heard about other-me getting dragged out from behind the curtain. Colonel Sh.e.l.ly dying. Professor Sorensen dying. Stealth planting a knife in other-me's throat before I could escape to Groom Lake.

I couldn't risk that happening here. First rule of building your new empire-get rid of the people who brought down your last one. The people who know how to beat you.

I'm still amazed I got Stealth. Granted, I took her out first so she wouldn't have a chance of being suspicious. Well, any more suspicious. She's so d.a.m.ned fast. But she never saw it coming and four minutes after walking into the stage to check out "safety concerns" she was unconscious on the floor.

Danielle was next. And Freedom's still the same clueless idiot, deferring to anyone he considers above him. G.o.d bless the military mind-set.

St. George stretched out on his blanket and shifted a few times to get comfortable. He glanced over at Stealth, then up at me. "You're right," he said. "This is kind of nice."

I plastered a smile on my face. "Why don't you take a nap?" I suggested. "A good long one."

He yawned and blinked twice.

"Wouldn't it be nice to dream about a world where there aren't any zombies?" I asked him. "No exes, no ex-virus, nothing ever happened. You could forget all of it. Just the plain old world where you're a normal guy, doing whatever the h.e.l.l you did before you became a superhero. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"G.o.d, yes," he said, and yawned again.

One great thing about this new, overpowered skill set is the dreams. The old me, the other-me who's out at Groom Lake or somewhere, could force someone to sleep, but eventually they'd wake up. I couldn't control their subconscious. But with Christian's powers in the mix, I can make people combine their dreams and build on each other's memories. Two or three people together can make a great, rich world, each of them filling in the gaps for the others. A world they never need to wake up from.

St. George managed to turn his head toward Stealth before his eyelids got too heavy. Then he just rolled back to center. His breathing leveled out.

I whispered a few more suggestions. I wanted them out of the way, lost in the dreamworld. But any good jailer knows you want a wall around the prison, too, just in case people get out of their cells. Just in case they start to wake up. Nothing too elaborate, just a believable tweak on reality, enough to keep them busy for a few- "What are you doing?"

I turned around and saw Sorensen's brat halfway between me and the door. The Corpse Girl, she likes to call herself. I should've guessed she'd be here. She follows St. George around like a dog. I wonder if he's doing her. Necrophilia's really not my thing, but I can see the appeal of a body that's almost-eighteen forever.

She marched across the room. In the dim light, her skin looked pure white. Even walking, she had a stillness to her that had taken me days to pin down. Sometimes she stops breathing. It's one of those subtle things, a person's chest moving up and down. You don't realize you register it until you meet someone who doesn't do it. She doesn't blink sometimes, either. It's kind of eerie, and I say this as someone who's been mentally cloned into another body.

I've got to admit, it creeped me out when I became conscious enough to realize who the Corpse Girl was. Little Madelyn, the daughter Sorensen would not shut up about, even after I'd arranged to have her killed in front of him. It was like some bad horror movie. The dead come back to life, you turn around, and there's the girl you killed in act two, back for zombie revenge.

Of course, she had no idea who I was. Then or now.

Granted, I didn't know enough about her, either. She's dead, but she's not your standard ex-human. Twice I've given her simple commands, as a test. They last about a day with her and then she just seems to shrug them off. I've heard she's got some sort of memory problem, which makes sense in a way.

It meant I was going to have to be harsh with her.

She was twenty feet closer when she saw the heroes stretched out on the floor. Her sneakers chuffed on the concrete floor as she stopped. There was just enough contrast to her iris that I could see her eyes flitting back and forth over all the figures. Mostly St. George, of course.

I gestured with my hand. "Could you come here?"

The Corpse Girl started moving again. She took a few more steps, then stopped again. She looked at me. "Did you do this?"

"Of course not," I said. "Could you come over and help me, please?"

That was enough. She walked over next to me and I pointed at one of the blankets. "Don't you want to take a nap? You can sleep on St. George's other side, if you like."

She blinked and trembled for a moment.

"Don't you want to go to sleep?" I asked her again.

Her eyelids drooped down, sagged lower and lower, and then snapped open. She glared at me. It was kind of eerie with the dead eyes.

I smiled and laced my fingers together. "Now, don't you look at me that way," I said to her. "Are you a little overtired, maybe?"

And then I hit her across the jaw with both hands.

She staggered back, and almost fell. Then she straightened up and her thin fingers rolled into fists.

I let my own fingers come apart and shook them out. I suck at fighting. I think I may have broken a finger. "Hurts, doesn't it?"

She winced and reached up to touch one of her cheekbones.

"Are you too dizzy to stand up?"

The Corpse Girl swayed and dropped to one knee.

I watched her try to keep her balance and tapped my fingers against my leg. One of Christian's odd muscle memories that shows up now and then. "You were sick when you were little, right? Muscular dystrophy or something? Your dad would mutter about it now and then after I killed you the first time." She teetered back and forth, trying to fight the questions. "He did something to fix you, didn't he?"

She fell over on her side. I took her by the arm and half led, half dragged her toward the circle of heroes. She struggled for a minute and I clucked my tongue at her. "You don't want to act that way, do you?"

She stopped fighting.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just relax?"

She rolled down onto the blanket. She ended up on her side, then tipped over onto her back. She stopped breathing again.

I whispered to her as she settled down. She struggled a bit, but the questions sank into her brain and the ideas took hold. She blinked a few times and then went limp. Her blank eyes stared up at the ceiling.

She was going to be the wild card in all this. I wasn't sure how long I could hold her, and I wasn't sure if holding her would have any effect. I don't think she can starve to death. I was tempted to just stomp her head in, but if the bodies were found that would lead to questions.

And I didn't want to deal with questions. Not yet, anyway.

For now, it's just a nice, peaceful sleep.

THIRTY-FIVE.

ST. GEORGE TRIED to get out of the chair. He strained his legs, tensed his back, forced his arms to push up. He focused on the spot between his shoulder blades and tried to hurl himself at the ceiling.

Nothing happened.

Christian grinned at him, then leaned forward in her seat. "Keep quiet for a minute, would you? And were you thinking of trying something?" she added. "I can see the smoke coming out of your nose."

His mouth went dry and his lips pressed together. He glared at her.

"Todd," she called out.

The young man appeared in the doorway. "Could you get on the radio and call the special channel for me? Tell them the word is 'prodigal,' and I'll be coming to them. I'll be there in ..." She glanced at St. George. "Let's say half an hour or so."

Todd's head bobbed up and down. "I'm sure they can make that happen, Ms. Nguyen." He vanished back to his desk.

She settled back into the throne-like seat. "I'm sure you're dying to ask some questions," she said to St. George. "And your minute's just about up, sooo ... go ahead. But stay in the chair, okay? And I can trust you not to hurt me, can't I?"

"It's just us," he said. "You can drop the act. Or the illusion. Whatever you want to call it."

Christian blinked.

"Making me see Christian. Is she dead? Or is she just asleep somewhere, too?"

She laughed. "You weren't paying attention at all."

"What did you do to her?"

"Ahhh," said Christian. "Now that's a smart question. I don't think you know it, but it's a good one." She tapped the side of her head. "Really, all that matters is that a few weeks ago the annoying Ms. Ngyuen went to sleep with a headache, and I woke up the next morning."

St. George stared at the woman. The faint accent had dropped out of her voice, and some of her words had a mild tw.a.n.g to them. She sounded younger. The muscles of her face flexed in odd ways. It just wasn't the way Christian held her lips or eyes. He remembered Smith's fake smile. "So you killed her," he said.

"Maybe." She shrugged. "It's not like the ex-virus got her or something. Heart's still beating, lungs are breathing, brain's active. It's my brain now, granted."

"She's going to be the last one."

"I doubt that very much. So do you. And let's be honest-there's no love lost between you guys. There was a lot of serious hatred for you and Stealth and the others floating around in here." Christian tapped her head again. "Don't try to convince me she was your best friend and you need to avenge her or something."

"She was a person. We didn't always agree on everything, but she still mattered."

The woman sighed and shook her head.

St. George tried to stand up again, but his limbs were frozen. "So you're ... what, controlling her body from Groom Lake?"

"Nope." Christian looked at her reflection in the mirror and adjusted her collar over the tie. "I'm a mental clone, if that makes any sense. Me and the other-me, our lives split right there when the idea of me got yanked into Christian's brain. So I don't know what's going on with him, he doesn't know what's going on with me. I'm Christian Smith, if that works for you."

"If you're not him," said St. George, "then why do all this? Why not work with us?"

Air blurted out between her lips. "Honestly," said the woman, "I don't know what other-me's been up to-not much, I'm guessing, considering how Stealth left him-but I've got a great chance to start over here. Twenty-odd thousand citizens, a few super-soldiers, an armored battlesuit ... that's the beginning of a new empire. As long as I worked around you, Stealth, the captain, and the rest. So, a few choice words and you all left while everyone in Los Angeles voted me in for mayor."

"Of course they did," growled St. George.